Adeleke awarded overhead bridge contract to fertilizer distribution company – Akere

By Isa Isawade

Former Osun Commissioner For Information and Strategy, and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Oluomo Sunday Akere, has accused the Governor Ademola Adeleke administration in the state of awarding the Oke Fia and LAMECO bridges which have shown signs of defects to a fertilizer distribution company and not a construction firm.

The APC chieftain, who was responding to a question put to him by a member of the panel of journalists on Osun NUJ Guest Platform on Wednesday over the allegation by the ruling Accord Party in the state that the APC sent agents to vandalise the bridges in order to tarnish government’s image, said APC had nothing to do with the defects noticed on the bridges.

The Osun State Coordinator, Tinubu Renewed Hope Ambassadors and Pioneer Governor of Lions International Club, District 40486 Nigeria, Akere, said rather than awarding the construction projects to qualified engineers, the Adeleke administration chose to award them to a fertilizer distribution company and a tie and dye firm.

“Our party has nothing to do with the damage noticed on the structurally defective overhead bridges constructed by the administration of Gov Ademola Adeleke. When you want to do a job, it is always very good that you give the job to a person who has adequate knowledge, the wherewithal. When the Adeleke administration announced that they wanted to do high brides at Oke Fia and LAMECO, our party came out to alert the people of Osun State on the likely danger inherent in giving an overhead bridge to a company that is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC as a distributor of fertilizer. Our party protested that the government was giving the LAMECO Bridge to a company registered with CAC as a tie and dye producer. They said we were spreading propaganda and that we were talking rubbish. Eventually, the people of Osun can see it clearly now.

“I belong to a platform on social media and there were arguments there yesterday (Tuesday 28 July 2026) on how they came about the defective nature of the overhead bridge. One man argued that ‘they accuse the government of giving the job to a tie and dye company and for doing it by direct labour, was it not direct labour that Oyetola used to construct the Olaiya Bridge during his tenure?’ and I laughed. An elderly person came there and challenged the man that if he did not know anything, everybody in Osun knew that Olaiya Bridge was awarded to a renowned construction company that has done more than five bridges like that in Delta. He is the one that the Federal Government just awarded the dualisation of Osogbo-Iwo-Ibadan Road to. That is to tell you the competence that the man has. But the boy was arguing, ‘No, he only put the company’s name for coverage, the job was done by direct labour.’

“Assuming it was even done by direct labour, the people that are supposed to do this work are in the ministry and they are supposed to be qualified engineers. Why the defects? This bridge was commissioned less than two months ago. We said it when they were doing Oke Fia flyover, the day they brought a big roller there, as the roller was going on top of the bridge the structure was shaking. They had to remove the big roller. All of us are not strangers to things that happen in Osun. They had to remove the big roller and bring a smaller one that would not affect the structure. The job they did is defective. They knew that they didn’t do a thorough job. Of what benefit will it be to us as a party to now go to the bridge and start destroying it?

“Some few days back, we were in Ife and I saw the overhead bridge that they said they were doing at Lagere, the bridge looked bent and by the time there is a noticeable error again, they will say it’s the opposition. Personally, I keep saying it, a party in government that cannot effectively construct a podium for the governor to stand and campaign cannot tell you that it can do an overhead bridge. The governor climbed the podium to campaign, the podium collapsed. Is that the people who would do an overhead bridge for us? We have nothing to do with the errors noticed. Instead of them to accept responsibility, they are lying. Government is continuum. Both assets and liabilities left behind by a government will be inherited by the one that is coming. So, we have nothing to gain from destroying it. They should be bold enough to accept responsibility that they are doing bad jobs.

“Several of the roads that they said they are doing are bad. Last week Monday we were in Ila-Orangun for campaign, the 4-lane road that they said they are doing there, when you drive over it, the vehicle will be dancing. That road, after a few weeks the asphalt will start peeling. They are not doing a good job and we have the right as a party, as a citizen of this state to air our complaints, to air our opinion because Osun deserves the best,” Akere said.

He also condemned the spate of insecurity in the state and said the security agencies in the state were putting measures in place to tame it. He urged the electorate not to be afraid of coming out to vote on Election Day, saying mechanism had been put in place to ensure security before, during and after the August 15 election.

Akere also said the governorship candidate of his party, APC, Asiwaju Munirudeen Oyebamiji would bring good governance to the state.